YouTube's new media company magnet

Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube has come up with "video fingerprinting" that will allow it to identify content [subscription required] from large media companies. Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and Disney (NYSE: DIS) will participate in the first trials of the technology starting next month.

The Wall Street Journal pointed out the advantage of the new approach: "Video fingerprinting is based on the premise that any video content has unique attributes that allow it to be identified even from a short clip."

YouTube is locked in a $1 billion lawsuit with Viacom (NYSE: VIA) about whether the video-sharing site made meaningful efforts to keep copyrighted content off of its site. Part of the YouTube defense has been that monitoring millions of clips with old tech was nearly impossible.

It would appear that the game has changed now. If YouTube can identify and take down clips that are the property of large media companies, it can go to them with a model that only allows their content to appear on its site if there is some compensation. That means that the battle between old media and YouTube moves back to the realm of what the video-sharing site should pay and leaves behind the issue of whether it can identify the content.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.